Booting up again

It still may not be the shoe one would flaunt at tony social gatherings, but it certainly isn’t a shoe company that was once floundering into oblivion.

Bata, which turned the corner in 2006 with a modest profit, is now gung-ho on its expansion drive, adding 70 stores (in the 1,000 sq. ft to 4,000 sq. ft range) a year to its current portfolio of 1,200. “These stores will be in a four-tiered format —upmarket Flagship stores, trendy City Stores, traditional Family Stores and large format Super Stores,” informs Marcello Villagran, MD, Bata India.

Aiming for a slice of the premium footwear market, Villagran has spun off Bata’s Hush Puppies brand into standalone branded stores—with four stores operational in Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Noida and Ahmedabad.

The company has also redesigned its retail outlets to cater to a younger consumer profile—bringing in brands like Marie Claire and Weinbrenner besides reinvigorating the almost defunct North Star sports shoe brand.

Along the way, the company has also downed its shutters on 70 outlets that weren’t adding to the botom line. Apart from increasing its brand portfolio, Villagran is betting on the secondary towns for shoring up Bata’s bottom line. “We believe there is a huge growth possible in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities and Bata has been opening new stores in small cities such as Nashik, Vadodara and Ambala,” says Villagran. That, and a thrust on rural markets, should see the company achieving its target of Rs 1,000 crore in turnover soon.